Author name: Michael Giberson

Was Federal Government Support Critical to the Shale Gas Breakthrough?

Michael Giberson In the State of the Union address, President Obama invoked a little federal government research history and then jumped to the kind of logical non sequitur so common to those who see the world through politically-colored glasses: The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner …

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The Sotu Energy Policy Extract

Michael Giberson For your convenience, the energy policy parts from last night’s State of the Union address. Be aware that I’ve dropped some non-energy words, phrases or even short sentences without indicating where such edits happened in order to make this extract relatively clean. In some cases I kept non-energy bits that seemed useful as …

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Give Me That Old Fashioned Analog Meter?!!?

Michael Giberson Worthy of note, but still mostly puzzling: continuing, low-level, organized opposition to smart electric meters. I can understand concerns over data privacy, but that is about it. Sure, in some states the roll-out came with a sense that the regulated utility was gaining more control over consumer electrical consumption and making customers pay …

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Presidents, Policies, Prices and Production

Michael Giberson Robert Rapier posts this chart: Rapier noted that last week Obama observed the energy production trends: “Under my administration, domestic oil and natural gas production is up, while imports of foreign oil are down,” Obama added in his statement. “In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with …

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Examining the “Masters Hypothesis” About the Role of Index Funds in the 2007-2008 Price Spike

Michael Giberson From the most recent (January 2012) edition of Energy Economics: “Testing the Masters Hypothesis in commodity futures markets” by Scott Irwin and Dwight Sander. The “Masters Hypothesis” refers to claims by investment manager Michael Masters (in testimony before a Senate committee -included in this collection– and on the TV program 60 minutes, among …

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Wsj Says Eia Says Natural Gas Prices Could Jump 54 Percent with Exports

Michael Giberson Yesterday the Energy Information Administration released the results of its analysis of possible price effects from increased natural gas exports, and the Wall Street Journal finds the drama (“Gas Prices Could Rise With Exports”): Increased exports of U.S. natural gas could drive up domestic gas prices as much as 54% in 2018, federal officials …

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Regional Transmission Efforts Good for Re-routing Information Flows to Regulators

Michael Giberson Peter Behr, at ClimateWire, describes the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to rework its electric transmission study processes, created in the 2005 Energy Policy Act but stalled by adverse court decisions and political missteps. I’m not so sure that the new approaches will be any better received than the old, but I noticed …

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Michael Graetz’s “The End of Energy” Surveys 40 Years of Energy Policy Making. It Isn’t Pretty.

Michael Giberson Michael Graetz’s The End of Energy is a fascinating run through 40 years of U.S. energy policy making. Engaging and at times even entertaining if you are at all interested in energy issues. In Graetz’s telling it is mostly a story of 40 years of failure, though he notes a few successes along …

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Bad News for the Natural Gas Suppliers, but Good News for Natural Gas Consumers

Michael Giberson I’ve been meaning to remark on natural gas prices for several days, especially since a regular reader pointed out that natural gas prices have reached their lowest levels in a decade. But now, in what may be a first, I’ll just outsource the discussion by favorably linking to a post on the Climate …

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